Roberto Mancini feels decisions are going against Manchester City

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Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini

Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini feels the penalty his side conceded in their win at Fulham was the latest key decision to go against them recently.

City won 2-1 after falling behind when referee Mark Halsey adjudged Pablo Zabaleta fouled John Arne Riise.

"It was out of the box and it was no foul, no penalty," Mancini said.

"There were a lot of mistakes in the past four games. We accept this, but we're not happy. We can do nothing, only continue to play."

Sergio Aguero equalised before half-time and Edin Dzeko came off the bench to score an 87th-minute winner for Mancini's men, who went into the game without a victory in four games in all competitions.

City had to battle to break down a determined Fulham defence and Mancini felt their job at Craven Cottage was made more even harder by Fulham's early spot-kick.

"Against Fulham here it is always difficult," the City boss said. "They are a good team, have good players, a good manager.

"This pitch is always tough for us but the problem is we were 1-0 down and I don't know why because the penalty was not a penalty.

"Sometimes it is a penalty but the referee is there to take a decision. Sometimes he does well, sometimes he can do bad.

"If we go to watch all our last three games, against Stoke it was handball (for Peter Crouch's goal). I don't know why the referee that was behind didn't give it. Against Arsenal there was one penalty [we should have been awarded].

"We were 1-0 down and Fulham didn't shoot on goal for the first 20 minutes.

"That was a problem but I am happy because the players continued to play well, kept calm and we had a lot of chances."

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145 comments

  • Objectively speaking, City have had a few go against them lately. However, for a team as big as they are, they will undoubtedly more than even themselves out before season's end.

  • Does any manager ever think decisions go there way???

  • Is this the weekend of The Manchester Moaning Festival?

    No wonder I follow other sports more than I do football now

  • 90 Why don't you prove why YOU believe demoting refs for making mistakes is wrong because that happens in football ALL THE TIME.

    Or say why you believe fining refs part of their match fees for making errors is in YOUR opinion, wrong.

    Rather than trying to silence me because I happen to hold a different opinion from your deluded one?

    Refs need to be accountable, even if you don't think they do.

  • @15. reidydoesit

    Change the record for gawd's sake. It's not funny and it's no true. Come up with something original.

  • In truth City were magnificent and how Fulham escaped so lightly absolutely baffles me.
    Furthermore David Silva bounced back to produce a performance that was World Class with Tevez and Aguero defending from the front and putting the Fulham defence under constant pressure.
    The scoreline flattered Fulham but all our critics and certainly the ANTI MCFC brigade now now they are back!!!

  • Halsey did get the penalty decision wrong. He also got the big decisions wrong against Liverpool, but that's life, at least he didn't cost City the game unlike last week..

    Refs should be demoted and fined if they make bad decisions. Their mistakes would clear up almost overnight....

  • Jon Baron, United will be five points clear by Christmas !! Dream on. Actually, though, if the corruption of bent refs that your club and the FA continue to impose on everyone else then you may be right !! Scandalous display by Halsey again yesterday, but thankfully good football won through.

  • @57United4life

    No we never see Fergie moaning do we... how many minutes of extra time does he want as four is clearly not enough????

  • Hopefully, people will now start to realise that it is not Suarez but referees incompetence in doing their job. Referees are biased towards Man U. I hope referees now don't target Zabaleta saying whenever he goes in for a tackle, it will be a foul.

  • I hope one day in my life is a Manager instructs his team not to cheat and instill in them the values of playing hard and fairly or not at all. Crouch should have raised his arm and told the ref he handled it. As well as players stopping cheating/diving/play-acting let's have a Manager who speaks out about (perceived) wrong decisions/issues for both sides whether his team win lose or draw

  • 57.United4Life

    Which planet do you live on? just check penalties against Man U at OT over the past ten years. Take the rose tinteds off when you do so, it might help your vision and perception.

  • Re:- SeanIreland93 - If Mancini is a fool for having a bit of a moan, what does that make the most bitter moaner of all time, Fergie?
    Absolute classic, moaning that refs are in control of the amount of time that is played!! He was more than happy with it when refs added ridiculous amounts of injury time!! Ha Ha Ha!! Only City win in Fergie Time!! The Blue Moon rises over the Theatre of Screams!

  • Absolutely right Roberto, it was one of the worst penalty decisions I have ever seen.

  • Mancini do one son.

  • Key decisions from Manchini

    Do i smash Ballotelli's back doors in?... as i haven't got a key to get in and wake him up for some heavy training.

  • 93.
    Dan

    "Barton being sent off when Tevez started it"
    - you're right. assaulting 2 players isn't at all worthy of a red card.

    "5 mins of injury time v QPR"
    - thanks to that completely unjustified red card for Barton. irrelevant though, as they only needed 3 of them.

    "no team ever gets penalties against (city)."
    - if you'd taken the time to read the above article...

  • 96.
    Paul
    46 Minutes ago
    Mr "Carlos Tevez will never play for city again" - Tevez made you all look silly....

    ---------
    Winning the league didn't look that silly for them

  • Two interesting articles on referees, which discuss the relationship between paying salaries and performance amongst other things.

    http://footballperspectives.org/content/upping-their-game-impact-new-contracts-football-referees%E2%80%99-performance

    http://footballperspectives.org/are-football-referees-really-biased-and-inconsistent

  • 62.Oh I say another superb goal
    "Are they questioning the integrity of the referees?"
    No I dont think they are, they are challenging the refs competance, which is totally understandable seeing how many games these muppets decide rather than the players. Refs are usually people who were poor players and transfer their inadquacies to the black when they ref.

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